What makes people pick up this book, I believe, is the universal longing to escape. How many of us fantasize about leaving our cell phone behind and disappearing overseas where no one can find us?

But this book isn’t about getting away; it’s about seeking after. Only through the experiences in the book is Elizabeth able to confront who she is and transform into who she wants to be. Surprisingly, that takes hard work. And somehow as she finds herself, we find ourselves, too.

​Everything about this book spoke to me, but I want to mention one part that really stuck out to me. Before her epic trip, she decided to learn Italian for no reason in the world other than she liked it. She wrote about sitting in the bathtub with her Italian study guide, saying the words out loud and swooning over their beauty. Elizabeth Gilbert loves life, and she reminds us how to love it.

The most interesting part of this book, to me, is that it resonated with me so deeply when I disagree with almost everything Gilbert says. As a chaste Christian supporter of marriage who has been on mood stabilizers for seven years (and I’m not ashamed, thank you very much), we are polar opposites.

Her genius – and it truly is genius – is how she can express her thoughts while at the same time allowing you to have your own and that be okay. The point isn't to prove herself right; the point is to get us thinking. Somehow even if we don't come to the same conclusions as her, we agree with the path she takes to find them, and we're grateful that she took us on the journey.

​And by the way, I have never wanted to learn to meditate more than I did after reading this book. Someday, I want to disappear into a Buddhist retreat for months just like she did. And really, if a writer can make something as boring as another person meditating so exciting… that’s dang good writing.